my wife watched the movie Alive about the soccer team which crashed in the Andes ......MMM. Bill!
Personally, I woud rather make a forced landing in a remote area than ditch in the ocean. However this plane was suppose to leave in the morning but had to have repairs made that delayed its departure until 1:00 p.m.. The temperature was -25 F at ground level. They were flying at 10,000 feet over Snag a small town along the route at 3:09 p.m. Chances are they had some type of difficulty that caused the radio and navigation equipment to become inoperable. This plane most likely got off course, went down in complete darkness and hit something solid far from the area that they were expected to be flying over.